Tashi Delek!!

Surely a record-breaking short gap between blogs this time?!

I'm back in India and have made it up into the hills to escape the heat - although it's hotting up here as well now.

First stop was Amritsar to see the beautiful Golden Temple.  I thought I'd experience the communal dining hall where pilgrims sit on the floor and are fed chapattis and daal for free, however I managed to take a wrong turn and ended up being ushered into an industrial-sized kitchen and made to sit on a production line with lots of women rolling out chapattis for the hundreds of hungry visitors.  I got some bemused looks but after a decent stint some of my chapattis were almost round :-)

A few miles west is the border with Pakistan, where they hold an evening ceremony to close the border gates each day.  Utter madness.  There was so much overzealous goose-stepping and high-kicking from the soldiers it's a wonder that trousers were not split.  The crowd's chants of "India Forever" were screamed at the Pakistani contingent with lots of flag-waving, dancing and deafening music. It's so popular they've built concrete grandstands for all the spectators.  After about an hour of theatrics the gates were finally shut and we could all go home.

I'm now in McLeod Ganj where the Dalai Lama has his government in exile.  I'm teaching an English class for Tibetan refugees and monks and helping out a small NGO (www.volunteertibet.org.in  if you want to have a look!).  Some of the stories I'm hearing are putting my Khumbu cough and stomach upset firmly back into perspective - people normally have to walk through the Himalayas for up to two months to reach here - sometimes in the middle of winter and usually walking only at night to avoid Chinese checkpoints.  Frostbite and amputations are not uncommon.  I've met a few people who were just small children when they made the journey, some having to leave their families behind.

On the positive side, the town has loads of energy as people are determined to make the most of their situation and hopefully influence positive change.  The Dalai Lama has been in town and will be back in June so I'm probably going to scrap going on to Ladakh and stay here until the end of the trip.  I'll be taking some cooking lessons so stand by for Tibetan Momos and lots of curries when I get back.....